


On the Topic of Atlantean Dragons

by esama



Series: Island of Fire [5]
Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling, Temeraire - Naomi Novik
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Crossover, Dragons, Epistolary, Gen, POV Outsider, Worldbuilding
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-08-28
Updated: 2016-08-28
Packaged: 2018-08-11 13:30:04
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,726
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7894450
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/esama/pseuds/esama
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Following the Sinking of Atlantis, Britain sends some naturalists to observe Atlantis.</p>
            </blockquote>





	On the Topic of Atlantean Dragons

**Author's Note:**

  * Translation into Deutsch available: [On the Topic of Atlantean Dragons](https://archiveofourown.org/works/12955242) by [johari](https://archiveofourown.org/users/johari/pseuds/johari)



> Unbetaed

My dearest Sir

As you know, I have been contracted by the Parliament to travel to the now famous Island of Atlantis and offer my observations and conclusions concerning the Dragons there. I hardly need to tell you know truly eager I am for this opportunity, for as far as I know, no Naturalist has yet made the voyage or set ashore on the island, or had the occasion to observe the dragons there.

We have set out on this voyage as I write this, so I am afraid you will not get these letters until the voyage is already done, but I could hardly restrain myself from writing. I have with me some random sum of witness reports from previous visitors to the islands, and I feel I must share some of their accounts on the beasts there.

Here, an excerpt from the witness account by Third Lieutenant Riley from aboard the HMS Goliath:

"I would not call myself an expert on such matters, but I do not believe any of the beasts are heavy weights. I have seen both the English Regal Copper and the Turkish Kazilik close enough to weigh them against their sizes to the beasts we saw on that blasted islands, and dragons of Atlantis hardly compare. They looked by large small – most of them no bigger than couriers."

It would make a certain amount of sense, of course. Atlantis, as we know and have mapped it, is no bigger than little over seventy thousand acres, and even with prodigious amount of fishing, there is not enough space for larger dragons, or their feeding. Smaller dragons, however – courier weights to light and middle combat weights – can manage with less. As it is, for now the general belief is that the dragons of Atlantis are no fighting beasts, so we may assume with some surety that they can manage with less still.

An anecdote from First Lieutenant Laurence (Now Captain Laurence I understand) from aboard the HSM Goliath.

"… (the dragons) none of them wore harness, or even any sort of saddles. And the fact that the people of the island went to some lengths to hide the dragons originally might also indicate that whatever their purpose it, it is neither for the island's defence or for warfare in general. Concerning the way they harassed us out of those waters, it is not as if seem to need an aerial combat force."

Captain Laurence, as you know, was one of the officers captured in that first raid on Atlantis, and he spend some time in captivity in the island, watched over by a dragon for most of it. A dragon with no harness and no crew present. I shall supply a copy drawn by my own hand of the artist's rendering of the dragon Lantica – the dragon that mostly guarded the captive British sailors – drawn to Captain Laurence's description.

I cannot yet say how accurate this artistic rendering is, but I am relatively certain we may trust on at least some key points here. First being the assortment of horns on the dragon's head – a "mane of horns" as Captain Laurence and many have described it. That, coupled with the second point – the smoothness of scales, their colouring and spikes on their spine – reminds me strongly of the Chinese Scarlet Flower, a heavy weight breed.

Honestly, when I saw the first crude sketches of the dragon, I was uncertain if the artist had mistaken it or perhaps taken a image of a Scarlet Flower as easy substitute. But, according to the witness accounts, it is quite accurate.

It is not the only startling resemblance to the Oriental I have encountered when considering the witness accounts of those who have seen Atlantis. As in China, the dragons of Atlantis seem to live among the people, in the very heart of the settlement, and though we have no accounts on the daily life or general relationship of men and dragons on the island, it is not wholly unreasonable to assume that it is the settled mode of existence on Atlantis. Indeed it was remarked on by many of the captive sailors – that the buildings of Atlantis are large and their streets wide – as if to accommodate for the dragons.

To them this was wholly unnatural – to me it brings in mind the cities and towns of China, and how they are laid out, ever with the presence of dragons in mind. How such a mode of settlement has found its way all around the world and to the remote island of Atlantis I haven't the faintest notion, but perhaps it might shed some light on the mystery of Atlantis. Indeed, one of my tasks there will be to discover whether or not the island is, indeed, connected to the Orient. It has been mentioned that there are indeed Orientals among the settlers of the island.

I will leave this letter here, for it dinner time and I have been invited by the generous captain to dine in his cabin. I suspect I will be writing many a letter during this voyage, to straighten out my notes and musings and decide upon a list of questions to ask if anyone on the island will be willing to answer them.

I have the honour to remain your obedient servant, etc.  
Sir Edward Howe

* * *

 

My dearest Sir

Do you recall those sketches of Atlantis we perused together that night in my library, marvelling over the supposed architecture of Atlantis and how it could not possibly be as it seemed – a city of temples as magnificent as any ancient Rome and Greece ever produced, built in only handful of years, in place with no known source of materials?

I am somewhat stunned to inform you, we were quite wrong in our assumptions – for Atlantis is just that. A city of temples in middle of the ocean, and far more magnificent than we even assumed.

I have included a sketch of the city as seen from the ship – in fact, I will most likely include several. As you can see, they have buildings of not only two but four storeys – and they seem to have added a pier to their harbour and guard tower that none of us expected to find there. And not just any guard tower. A guard tower manned by a dragon.

I must admit, I quite absconded with Captain Lewis' seeing glass to have a closer look at the dragon. It is not of Lantica's breed. At this distance I could not tell for sure, but I believe it is a courier weight, two, three tons at most. It is not, however, a courier breed as suspected. I saw it spread it's wings, and can tell with some surety that this dragon was not bred for neither speed or long flight.

I would go as far as to say that this dragon was not bred _at all_. Rather, it seems to be a _wild breed_!

This is most exhilarating, but I must stop now – they are readying the party to go on shore. There is already a delegation waiting for us. I will add upon this letter later.

 

 

It has been some eight hours since we arrived and I – I hardly know where to begin! Their dragons! My friend, their dragons!

Of course everyone knows that some of the dragons of Atlantis breathe fire, and that Lantica's breed alone has a prodigious and hitherto unknown ability to spit flames that sustain themselves over long distance. You recall that I myself supposed that it might indeed be only Lantica's breed that has the ability – it being so rare on the continent. I know now that both you and I were hindered by bias there, in our assumptions that what applies to the continent must surely apply here too.

They all breathe fire.

But, I am jumping quite ahead of myself.

We set ashore on Atlantis around early afternoon, and were met by a delegation of settlers of the island on the stone pier. There are, as you know, other members of the Royal Society on board our ship, and two of them joined some sailors and I on that first trip ashore – Mr. Jonathan Williams, a geologist of some merit though I know very little of such things, remarked on the pier with some interest.

"Such large slabs of limestone – they must have a mine on the island," said he. "I suppose they had the beasts carry them – it would take a half a dozen horses to draw a single slab on that bridge."

He made some mentions about the architecture which I am afraid went quite over my head – I will request a written summary of his observations at a later time for your perusal. The comment of dragons hauling the stones, however, piqued my interest. Did the people here get the idea of dragons hauling cargo from the Americans, their most common trade partners? Or is it a natural order of things in the island, that dragons too take part in such construction works?

We were met on the pier by Mr. Potter, Mr. Weasley and Ms. Léger and Ms. Hertzfeld. As you know, our ship is a merchantman and the mission of our Captain is that of trade rather than knowledge, so that is most of what was discussed – the members of Royal Society such as myself were guests. It was felt that it would be the safest and most assured way to the island. And now I understand why.

They are quite suspicious by nature, the people of Atlantis, and openly rude in their apprehension. We were not welcomed warmly there. Indeed, we were not welcomed _at all_.  After the Sinking of Atlantis in June 1800, Atlantis did not look upon the British Flag with kindness, not in the least. Our ship, I understand, is only the second to set ashore here since that bitter event.

When Mr. Williams made to enquire the construction of the pier and the watch tower where the little green dragon sat he was quite rudely answered that such things have nothing to do with trade – and that we should mind our business only. Any further enquiries – by Mr. Williams, and by myself on the matter of the watch dragon's breed – were met with reticence and eventually open hostility and in the end our captain told us to keep our peace. So, in the end, we could make no enquiries without getting our ship summarily chased off the island.

I suspected my having been to Orient helped me accept that refusal to share information better than the others did, for they had obvious difficulties in not making further attempts of soliciting information. But then, I already had a wealth of clues and information right in front of myself.

There were dragons on the shore line, openly sunbathing on the white sand. I can say with some surety that there are in total four breeds of dragons on the island. The small green courier weight like that of the watch dragon. Two light combat weights. And the largest breed, a small middle weight.

The first of the light combat weights I'd estimate around 8 to 9 tons; a blue and silver specimen with quite the ridges on their back and a sort of short snout that brings to mind the Scandinavian breed of Lindorm – only the Lindorm is a much larger breed, being a middle weight of near 14 tons. I'd estimate this breed to be the length of approximately 22 feet, with wingspan of perhaps 35 to 40.

The second light combat weight was Lantica's breed, of which I only saw one specimen while on shore. They are slightly longer in body length than the blue dragons – perhaps 25 feet in length, though I couldn't speak for their wingspan, as the one I saw was walking about with wings folded. I suspect they are somewhat lighter, however – they are not quite as broad of chest as the blue dragons, and somewhat more slender at hip as well. 7 tons at most, I suspect. The sketch we have seems most accurate, however – and the resemblance to the Scarlet Flower is even more striking in person. It is truly as if they are of same species. Perhaps a close relation?

The last dragon was the biggest of the lot – 50 to 60 feet I should say, and I'd put their weight around 13 tons at most. They are a remarkably spiked species of dragon, with ridges on their spines and outer joints and quite sharp scales. With their underlying colouring of rustic red under their black spikes, I am strongly reminded of the Kazilik.

The dragon I had the most chance to observe was the green courier weight breed – it being more numerous than any other breed on the shore. And I dare say I can pin a familiarity to them too. British dragons being those with which I am most familiar with, I can recognise the shape of the chest, the sternum. This breed has the body shape of a Greyling if anything – and colour and wings of a Sharp Spitter.

As you know, the origins of the dragons of Atlantis is the most prevalent question pondered upon within the Royal Society and, I suspect, it comes up in many other discussions of less studious a nature. It is in large part the reason why I am here – because as far as anyone has known until now, these dragons seem to have appeared from nowhere. Only, they have not.

I can see the relations clear as day. These dragons have lineages all across the west all the way to east. But though that should by nature offer me conclusions and answers, it only rises more questions. The main of which is _how_?

How did they come to be here, and how are they… like this? A Kazilik is a heavyweight breed, Scarlet Flower the same and yet their counterparts here are quite small in comparison. Lindorm is a respectable middleweight breed and yet it's counterpart here is a mere light weight. Of these dragons only the green one is of size that seems reasonable for the lineage – and it is as if it was bred to be the most abysmal courier dragon imaginable, with Greyling's head and torso and yet a Sharp Spitter's wings, it is no doubt fast in a sprint but I suspect abysmal at long distance flight.

Honestly, these dragons look to me to be failed breeding experiments. Except for one thing.

It was demonstrated to us, I suspect intentionally, that night. You have of course heard of the nightly fireworks of Atlantis – everyone has, I was quite looking forward to them. We saw them that night from the ship, it was truly a display you'd be hard pressed to find anywhere outside the Orient. But it wasn't only thing we saw.

We saw the dragons flying in formation – no, in _dance_ rather – and we saw them, all of them, breathe fire.

I can scarcely describe it. It was a well rehearsed, skilled demonstration of flying and fire breathing – they flew around and amidst each other in loops and twists, weaving together in flight and they breathed fire in unison. It reminded me of nothing as much as a Celtic knot, only with fire and dragon scale. It was… unimaginable and though I know it was shown to us as a threat more than anything, I still will count myself honoured to have witnessed it.

But it did deliver their message quite clearly. _All dragons in Atlantis breathe fire_.

What do those merchant call Atlantis again – the Island of Fire? It is more apt than I could've possibly imagined.

I believe I will have a drink to soothe my excited nerves and then I will start planning on the full treatise concerning the dragons of Atlantis. "Concerning the Dragons of Atlantis and their relations to Continental Breeds" I believe will do for a title. Hopefully tomorrow, our last day on the island, will give me enough material to satisfy the curious back home.

I have the honour to remain your obedient servant, etc.  
Sir Edward Howe

* * *

 

My dearest Sir

We have left the Island of Fire behind now, and I am sad to say, I did not get the chance to observe more of the island's dragons. A bank of clouds rose during the night and washed us all with a dreadful pouring of rain come morning, and all the dragons – bar for the watch dragon on the tower – retreated elsewhere. I wonder if they have housing for the dragons, here, for them to take shelter from the rain if they wish it – certainly there are buildings high enough for that.

It seems I must make do what little I have observed so far and postulate on my observations. Sadly, we have been given the order to depart – with the trading done, we are not welcome to linger and Captain Lewis is not so daring as to risk a Sinking.

I must have been beside myself with excitement to not have heard it – it has happened twice now, the Sinking of Atlantis. A number of Spanish ships made an attempt at the island, it seems – their luck here was no better than that of the previous Sinking. Now there are, all told, four ships sunk somewhere near the shore of Atlantis. It makes me shiver to think of it, that we might've set anchor on top any one of them.

I suspect you must've heard of it by now, it must have made the news.

I have discussed our findings on Atlantis with my colleagues from the Royal Society. Sadly their findings are no more concrete than my own.

Mr. Williams could only suppose that there is a mine somewhere in Atlantis which supplies them with limestone for building – he remarked on how strangely porous it seemed, how brittle? I did not quite understand, but apparently the limestone at the island is of poor, weak quality. He has acquiesced to writing a brief summary on his observations which I will add to my letter here, but he will naturally be writing a treatise of his own concerning the stone work, architecture, the sand and such present on the island.

Mr. Todd, our botanist, lamented most bitterly on the shortness of our visit and how restricted our observations were – as his interest lay in the natural plant life and the farming methods of Atlantis, he was most limited by our restriction to the pier. We could not see past the flood barriers of the island, nothing but the buildings and top of some fruit trees.

"The sailors of the First Sinking spoke of farmlands – of Sunflowers and other things," remarked Mr. Todd most bitterly. "One was most adamant on them being truly gigantic. I was so looking forward to seeing them – there must be some method of soil fertilisation here to produce enough crops to feed the men and beasts. Never mind the question of where they got enough arable soil for farming anyway!"

Atlantis was, after all, little more than barren rock before the settlement. We all agreed on the fact that Atlantis must mostly survive on fish – and that it must be the origins of their farmlands as well. I told Mr. Todd about the farming methods used in the Orient, the use of Dragon night-soil in farming, and Mr. Todd and Mr. Williams both agree it might do the trick. Feed the dragons on fish, use their waste for farming, and so on. Of course, that only made Mr. Todd more bitter – apparently animal dung alone isn't enough for farmlands, and the question of where other necessary elements come from and how they are mixed and blended and treated is quite vital concerning the natural balance of farming.

We all agree on one thing, however. The island is far too small and limited to sustain it's population, both draconic and human. The mine they use cannot possibly sustain the pace of their building, no matter how skillfully they do their stone cutting. Fishing cannot sustain the dragons forever – if anything, they should have already made a dent on the populations of marine animals near the island. And there is nowhere near enough farmland on the island to provide for the number of cattle you'd need to support a dragon population of Atlantis's side.

They are doing well now, no doubt about that – but their resources are limited. How it will reflect on future events, I cannot tell, but of this I am certain: as things seem to be now, the Island of Fire cannot possibly support it's dragon population for long, even if they are mostly small. When their resources will run out, I cannot say – we do not know the full extend of what they have available, those flood barriers of theirs hide quite number of things. But it cannot go on forever.

They must by nature run out of food eventually. And when that happens, I fear the island will be besieged without haste by whoever happens to be there first when their draconic force weakens in hunger. It is inevitable, especially so since they seem to have no naval forces of their own, not even something as simple as a row boat. They are already trapped by the Atlantic ocean itself.

But of course, we haven't the faintest notion if that has any impact on their ability to call upon the Sinking of Atlantis, however that is achieved. The island might weaken, it's population starve, and it might still sink any ships that linger. We, sadly, have no way of knowing. Future will tell, I suppose.

I do wish we had gotten a better chance to study the island and it's life. Perhaps the future will offer more opportunities to naturalists to try and understand this queer island and it's ways. I can only hope I might be one of those to get the chance to learn more. For now, I will continue on planning my treatise. I might not have many facts – but those few that I do have have given me much to ponder upon indeed.

I have the honour to remain your obedient servant, etc.  
Sir Edward Howe

**Author's Note:**

> Haha nothing but babble about dragons, but Outsider Pov was requested and Edward Howe to me seemed like likely person to be sent to Atlantis to figure out What Is Up With All The Damn Dragons.
> 
> (Also I changed the Fireballs a bit, I previously had them have a mane of hair, changed it to horns because wtf even. Small thing but there it is)
> 
> (Also yeah, Harry Potter dragons are kinda tiny in comparison to the biggest Temeraire dragons. Hungarian Horntail is the biggest and it’s the size of a Yellow Reaper or there abouts)


End file.
